by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
Maybe Atrios is right about Bob Kerrey (D-last elected to represent NE). Here he is challenging Presidential candidates to go on Don Imus' new show. As I read it, the most valuable things about Don Imus are ... the fact that his audience is large an influential. This is silly; Rush Limbaugh has a large and influential audience, but on the merits there's no reason to engage Limbaugh's rantings on ... well, anything, except maybe the broad level that there are lots of working-class white men who feel disenfranchised. Likewise, if the Imus' best attribute is that his audience consists of voters who are occasionally receptive to Democrats but otherwise hard for candidates to reach, then that's a rather small-minded reason to patronize his programming.
The charitable interpretation is that Kerrey wrote this to set up his own appearance on the new Imus show, proving his courage and independence to Nebraskans. As long as he doesn't make pollyannish statements about Iraq, suggest a brain-dead "compromise" plan to privatize Social Security, or tell Imus how awful it was to have a lynch mob started over a few words, it seems harmless enough. But watch out.
